When I came home on Saturday morning, my neighbor was out with her camera taking pictures of this spider on a bush.  After unloading my groceries, I grabbed my camera and tripod and joined her. 

It took some experimenting with the camera settings - the whole time I was taking pictures, I couldn't see any of the web on the camera's screen.  But when I got the pics onto the computer, the web showed up on all them.

I had no idea what kind of spider it was, but when I googled "yellow and black spider", "Black-and-Yellow Argiope  (Argiope aurantia)" showed up with pictures that matched the spider on the bush.

I learned that it is also known as the garden spider or the writing spider (for the zig zag pattern in the web.)  The spider hangs in the center of the web with its head down.

Demonstrating its writing ability - mmmmm

Addendum: September 16, 2014 - More photos and a video of this spider can be seen here (September 16 post).